John Kelly: Asteroid mining no flight of fancy

12:09 AM,
Apr. 29, 2012

This March 3, 2000 image provided by NASA shows the near-Earth asteroid Eros from the NEAR spacecraft at a distance of 127 miles (204 kilometers). A group of high-tech tycoons wants to mine nearby asteroids, hoping to turn science fiction into real profits. The mega-million dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020. (AP Photo/NASA)

Written by

John
Kelly

Make fun all you want, but exploring asteroids is a space endeavor worth the effort.

You can make a scientific case and a business case for sending probes and people to space rocks. There are tons of reasons to go, not the least of which is the bold move by some of the biggest names in private space and the wealthiest venture capitalists in the world to go after asteroid exploration rather than waiting for NASA.

There are two commonly cited reasons for looking more into them: Asteroids are packed with valuable resources, and they're packed with the potential to wipe out life as we know it on this ...